UNESCO-IHE announces opening for Rector of the Institute

The Rector leads the Institute in fulfilling its United Nations and UNESCO mandates to strengthen the capacity of the water and environmental sectors in developing countries and countries in transition. The qualified candidate upholds and strengthens the global role of the Institute by providing vision and leadership in anticipating and responding to global developments, changing societal demands and new technological and political opportunities. He/she promotes the learning capacity of the Institute by enhancing its sensitivity to, and willingness to detect, signals of change both didactically and in technical aspects of the water sector both from inside and outside. The Rector ensures that the knowledge base and educational methods of the Institute are up to date and further developed, in order to maintain high academic standards.

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University of Dundee seeks Chair in Flood Science and Chair in Water Science

As part of a major investment in water-based research, the University seeks to fill two new Chairs in Flood Science (School of Social and Environmental Sciences) and Water Science (UNESCO IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science).

The Chair in Flood Science forms part of the University’s investment in the SAGES (Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment and Society) partnership. The successful applicant will contribute to the wider SAGES research agenda on earth system science and environmental change. Applications are invited from scientists working in hydrology, geomorphology and natural disasters.

The Chair in Water Science is in the recently created UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science. The successful applicant will have expertise in catchment science and support research undertaken under the UNESCO Hydrology, Environment Life and Policy (HELP) programme which promotes global river basin management.

More information – Chair of Flood Science
More information – Chair of Water Science

UNESCO-IHE launches MSc in Hydroinformatics

Participants in this specialisation will learn how to solve problems of hydraulics, hydrology and environmental engineering for better water management using simulation modelling and other tools. They will also become acquainted with models applied to water-based systems, learn to design and integrate decision support systems, and develop the skills to provide expert advice to managers and users of advanced tools.

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Access a complete list of water events around the world

Aquatic Habitats in Sustainable Urban Water Management: Science, Policy and Practice

Edited by Iwona Wagner, Jiri Marsalek and Pascal Breil - UNESCO-IHP Urban Water Series – UNESCO Publishing / Taylor & Franci

Aquatic habitats supply a wide range of vital ecosystem benefits to cities and their inhabitants. The unsustainable use of aquatic habitats, including inadequate urban water management, however, tends to alter and reduce their biodiversity and thereby diminish their ability to provide clean water, protect us from waterborne diseases and pollutants, keep urban areas safe from flooding, and support recreational ecosystem services and even the aesthetic enjoyment of our world.

Aquatic Habitats in Sustainable Urban Water Management – the result of collaboration between UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme and its Man and the Biosphere Programme – aims at improving our understanding of aquatic habitats, related ecosystem goods and services, and conservation and sustainable use – with a special focus on their integration into urban water management. The first part of this volume reviews basic concepts and challenges in urban aquatic habitats, as well as strategies for their management integration. The second part examines technical measures related to habitats management and rehabilitation, along with their incorporation into urban planning and their role in human health. The final part looks at current urban aquatic habitat issues and practical approaches to solving them through the lens of case studies from around the globe.

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UNESCO-IHE: Researcher/Lecturer in Hydroinformatics

The new Researcher/Lecturer will participate in acquisition of research funding, for continuing to build up research, and for international collaboration in hydroinformatics education and research, especially with the partners in developing countries. One of the tasks will be the support of the Web-based knowledge management systems for education and research. The candidate will have 1-4 years of experience in education or consultancy. The particular need is for a person who has practical as well as research experience in one or more of the following areas: development and use of modelling, data analysis and GIS systems, computational intelligence and optimisation, software development, systems integration.

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UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science – University of Dundee: Researcher in Water Services Regulation

Deadline: 30 September 2008

Applications are invited for a new Researcher with expertise in law and economics to investigate the legal issues surrounding the economic regulation of water utilities at a national scale within the global context.

The candidate will have a research record in legal issues related to the regulation of water utilities - including, but not limited to topics such as regulatory governance, regulation of publicly owned utilities, international investment issues, and relevant legal principles of regulatory law; practical / applied research in this area would be an asset. The candidate will be a proactive member of the existing Transnational Water Law research cluster at the Centre and will work to build this research area.

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Background: The United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR), released every three years in conjunction with the World Water Forum, is a comprehensive review providing an authoritative picture of the state of the world’s freshwater resources. The World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), hosted by UNESCO, coordinates the development of the WWDR. The Report is a joint effort of the 25 UN agencies and entities which make up UN-Water, working in partnership with governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders. The third edition of the WWDR will be launched on March 16, 2008 at the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey.

What prompted you to work on the third edition of the UN World Water Development Report (WWDR-3)?
Olcay Ünver and Andras Szollosi-Nagy approached me in Delft at the 50th anniversary celebrations of UNESCO-IHE to explain the new approach being taken to WWDR-3 and enquire whether I would be interested in joining the team full-time. I was indeed very interested from the outset because I saw the possibilities of a report that would demonstrate the importance of water to development and through example, an integrated approach within the sector. More importantly, it would recognize that partnership is needed of the real decision-makers in government, the private sector and civil society. This participative approach was one of the main elements of the World Water Vision.

You were involved in the WWDR-1…  What are the major differences you see between the WWDR-1 and the WWDR-3 that you are producing now?
My participation in WWDR-1 was quite limited in the sense that I contributed only to the chapter on sharing waters. My input was as a result of my participation in launching the program PCCP (from Potential for Conflict to Cooperation Potential) whose groundwork provided the base for the text of this chapter. This probably was similar to the experience of others responsible for contributing chapters, as each chapter was pretty well a stand-alone document, generally prepared by the UN agency responsible for the sector or subject covered by the chapter. The report in preparation is quite different, in the sense that all sectors are treated in each of the chapters on use and state of the resource. The interface between these involves all of the members of UN-Water, so all may contribute to or comment on all sections of the report.

What are the connections between the World Water Vision, which you directed, and the World Water Development Report/World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)?
I have already spoken of one of the messages of WWDR-3 related to the participative approach. The preparation of WWDR-3 has been a participative process, just as the process of preparing the Vision was. The Vision included an assessment of uses and the state of the world’s water resources. It was published some three years before WWDR-1 and released at the 2nd World Water Forum in 2000. In this sense it was a forerunner of the WWDRs that released at the subsequent World Water forums.

How is WWAP fulfilling the goals of the World Water Vision and what are the gaps that still remain?
Global changes are proceeding at a pace greater than was foreseen in the Vision report. Scientific consensus on climate change had not been confirmed as reality at the time the Vision was being written. The problems already faced seemed substantial enough! The Vision assumed that the world community would respond when the water issues and opportunities had been identified. Unfortunately, the world community has not awakened to the importance of water to sustainable development and the dangers of mismanagement of the resource. Investment is lagging behind what we had assumed would happen. Climate change will exacerbate the situation. WWDR-3 will describe the same challenges that were highlighted by the Vision.

• Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment. In light of this fact, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Professor Wangari Maathai, who stands at the front of the fight to promote ecologically viable social, economic and cultural development in Africa and particularly in Kenya. She concluded her Nobel lecture with these words: 'Today, [...] the stream has dried up, women walk long distances for water, which is not always clean, and children will never know what they have lost. The challenge is to [...] give back to our children a world of beauty and wonder'.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has identified more than 3,600 treaties relating to international water resources dating from AD 805 to 1984, the majority of which relate to some aspect of navigation.
• In the last 50 years, 200 water-related treaties were negotiated and signed.
• An empirical study of water conflict and cooperation, completed in 2001 at Oregon State University (United States), documents a total of 1,831 interactions, both conflictive and cooperative, between two or more nations over water during the past 50 years.
• The total number of water-related events between nations, are weighted towards cooperation: 507 conflict-related events, versus 1,228 cooperative ones, implying that violence over water is not strategically rational, effective or economically viable.
• Water was the last and most contentious issue resolved in negotiations over a 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan and was relegated to 'final status' negotiations - along with other difficult issues, such as Jerusalem and Palestinian- between Israel and the Palestine.
• The Water Court, operating in the city of Valencia, Spain has been in existence at least since the 10th century. This court is a good example of a local initiative for peacefully resolving conflicts. It is composed of farmers, who hear disputes over irrigation waters and make judgments on the spot conducting all proceedings orally.

The section “Did You Know…?” is taken from the 1st World Water Development Report 'Water for People, Water for Life', and from Potential Conflict to Co-operation Potential (PC-CP) website, 'Water security and peace - A synthesis of studies prepared under the PC-CP and Water for Peace process' [PDF format - 2.8 MB] publication.

- International Hydrological Programme
- World Water Assessment Programme
- UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education
- Water-related Institutes and Centres under the Auspices of UNESCO
- UNESCO Water-related Chairs

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For contributions or comments, contact the editor at waterportal@unesco.org